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Buzz: Our Founder Talks To VoyageDallas

Last month, VoyageDallas reached out to learn more about Flea Style. From our startup story to future plans, here is the full article from the candid conversation.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Cobb.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brittany. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a 34-year-old mother of two. I was born and raised in Southern California and moved to Dallas at 18 to attend Southern Methodist University. I graduated with a journalism degree and spent most of my 2os penning articles for publications like The Dallas Morning News, Forbes and Lucky. I spent a year in New York City as a freelancer before moving back to Dallas to take on the DailyCandy city editor role.

In 2009, I started a little side project called The Dallas Flea and filled it with cool creative people I met through my journalism career. A week before my first market, I was laid off from DailyCandy and decided that day that the journalism world was facing tough financial times and I needed to figure out my next career move. I had always loved interior design and started fluffing my friends’ spaces. Those little jobs turned into big jobs and within a couple years I had a full-fledged design firm called Cobb Interiors. My little flea market was still a side hustle and kind of dying in the wings because I had little time to foster it.

In 2015—after getting married and having two children—I made the tough decision to give up my booming design business to go back to the little passion project that made my heart so happy. I wanted to raise my kids on my terms and my design jobs were just too demanding. I changed the The Dallas Flea’s name to Flea Style, and today, we have huge curated pop-up markets in Dallas and Houston, a cool conference for creatives, artisan workshops at our Dallas headquarters and an online shop offering handmade, vintage and one-of-a-kind wares that we collect at flea markets and collaborate on with our vendors. In a nutshell, we’re a hub for makers and shakers that want to shop small, find unique lifestyle items and learn ways to start a creative business or grow their current passion project. We’re working on opening a store to offer our unique wares beyond the shows and our online shop and also house a maker space inside for workshops and events to highlight our amazing vendors.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a very windy road! Of course, there have been struggles along the way! That’s just part of the small business world. Struggles change all the time but they’ve ranged from event planning and venue issues to finding the perfect home for a retail spot in a shifting retail landscape. Struggles aren’t fun but once you push through them you often realize why they were put in front of you and how they can be a blessing or a learning lesson.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Flea Style story. Tell us more about the business.
Flea Style hosts huge curated pop up markets in Dallas and Houston twice a year for a total of four shows. We’re known for assembling a unique mix of handmade, vintage and one-of-a-kind items under one roof from clothing and jewelry to home decor, children’s items, food and dog gear. In between our show seasons we host a cool conference for creatives to learn and grow with empowering panels, educational workshops, meals and more. We also have an online shop offering a small assortment of unique items.

Everything we’re about is supports small businesses, creative minds and people looking to follow their arrow in life.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck. I believe we create magic when hard work and good timing collide. So I don’t think luck has played any role in my life. I think I’ve created amazing opportunities because I’ve worked really really hard to land at the right place at the right time.